Greetings. It’s New Zealand naturopath, Eric Bakker, author of Candida Crusher and formulator of the Canxida range of products. Thanks for checking out my video. A question I get asked quite regularly on YouTube, but also through my website and by patients that I see on Skype is Marijuana and Candida. “Eric is medical marijuana effective against Candida? Is there any link between marijuana and Candida?” A woman called Jennifer from Edenborough, Scotland, so Jennifer is asking me “Marijuana and Candida – tell me what I need to know about this topic.”

I could tell you something about marijuana a lot of people may not be aware of. Marijuana has quite a destructive effect on the body, and you may have read this kind of information. And if you’re a pot smoker, you’re probably thinking, “Yeah, yeah. I’ve heard it all before.” Tobacco smoking is not good. Marijuana smoking is not good. But what you may not know is cannabis smoking has a much greater burden on the lung and on the immune system than tobacco has.

In fact, a lot of research spanning between 1997 right up until about mid-2000 has proven scientifically that you get about a 3.5 to 4 times greater tar burden from cannabis smoke than you do from cigarette and tobacco smoke. Every marijuana cigarette that you smoke is equivalent to about the burden of 20 cigarettes, so if you’re smoking one joint per day for a week, you’re literally smoking a pack of cigarettes per day. That’s the kind of burden it has on the lungs.

Researchers in Sweden also found quite a big link between regular cannabis smoke, regardless if you’re using pipes, bongs, or joints or however way you’re getting the smoke into your mouth, it was causing much increased incidents of different kinds of oral Candida conditions. So you’re predisposing yourself a lot more to Candida of the mouth by smoking. Xerostomia, leukoderma, and different conditions that effect the oral cavity. No doubt, you’ll also be increasing your chances of reducing the immune system’s ability to fight any ear, nose or throat infection. Because the THC, the tetrahydrocannabinol, basically the oil, the THC oil, it reduces the neutrophil count. So it actually has a direct effect on lowering neutrophil count.

Neutrophils are primary first line defense white blood cells that counter infectious disease. So people who regularly inhale cannabis or smoke cannabis in any shape or form are going to certainly have a lowered immune response. Those are things you need to bear in mind. The cannabis smoke also has a direct effect on suppressing the ability of macrophages to work in the lungs. Macrophages are basically scavenger cells or cells that line many different parts of the oral cavity, the lung tissue, different parts of the body are lined with these cells to help improve the ability of that surface area to reduce the ability of pathogens to get in and create infectious disease or parasites or pollen or bacteria. So macrophages scavenge these kinds of things and deal with them. But what the cannabis smoke does is it directly attacks the macrophages ability to do that, so this really stuffs your lungs up.

Cannabis smoke has multiple other effects. They did research quite a while back now with a group of about 1,250 female patients, and they had a look at the cannabis habits of these women over a four month period and found a direct association between regular cannabis over 16 weeks and vaginal Candida yeast infections. There is also a link. Somehow they’re not quite sure. It may be because of the reduced neutrophil activity, but they’re still doing research in that area.

Marijuana is not really good to smoke if you want to prevent a yeast infection or if you want to recover from a yeast infection. The medical marijuana debate is something different altogether. But again, not enough research has been done to look at the effects of regular medical marijuana use maybe in a tablet form and the effects that it will have on predisposing the person to Candida yeast infections.

But Jennifer, what I want you to get from this video is regular cannabis smoking is not really a good idea for health, period. It’s not a good idea. I hope people who are watching this video who keep asking me the question, what about having weed or smoking dope or having joints, can I still recover from Candida if I smoke marijuana. It is possible, but it’s very, very difficult for your body to do so. So regular cannabis consumption is not something I recommend to people for general health. Nor do I recommend regular alcohol consumption, or regular soda drink consumption. To me, cannabis, alcohol, and soda drinks all belong in that same category. They all screw your health up depending on how much you take and use over a period of time.

I think if a person had a glass of wine from time to time or had a joint once or twice a year at a Christmas party or a drink of coca cola at a wedding that happens every now and then, I think that’s perfectly okay. But that’s not what happens. The majority of people will smoke dope every week. The majority of people will drink alcohol regularly, several times per week. And the majority of people also when it comes to soda drinks, drink these drinks every day. Some of my patients drink two liters of coca cola a day. Some of my patients smoke one joint a day. And a lot of my patients drink alcohol every single day. And then they come to me and say, “Why aren’t I getting well? I’m not recovering.”

And a lot of people are also stuck in their ways where they’re willing to give up everything, but they don’t want to stop smoking dope, or they don’t want to stop drinking alcohol. If you’re one of those people watching this, there is no point in talking to me about your health if you’re not prepared to make that change to really improve your health.

I hope that answers your question, Jennifer. Cannabis or marijuana and Candida are bedfellows. I believe there’s an association there. If you regularly smoke dope, expect a very difficult time to get rid of Candida. Probably best not to even start in the first place. And it will save you a lot of money if you don’t smoke that stuff because it cost a heap I’ve been told. Thanks for tuning in.

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